nth-and
nineteenth-century clock towers, the electronic time tone rang out from
the Tower of Galileo, chiming the hour of nine. As the notes
reverberated over the vast expanse of Space Academy, U.S.A., the lights
in the windows of the cadet dormitories began to wink out and the
slidewalks that crisscrossed the campus, connecting the various
buildings, rumbled to a halt. When the last mournful note had rolled
away to die in the distant hills, the school was dark and still. The
only movement to be seen was the slow pacing of the cadet watch
officers, patrolling their beats; the only sound, the measured clicking
of their boots on the metal strips of the slidewalks.

On the north side of the quadrangle near the Tower, a young watch
officer paused in front of one of the dormitories and scanned the
darkened windows of the durasteel and crystal building. Satisfied that
all was in order, he continued on his lonely way. A moment later a
shadowy figure rose out of the bushes opposite the dormitory entrance
and stepped forward quickly and cautiously. Pausing on the slidewalk to
stare after the disappearing watch officer, the figure was illuminated
by the dim light from the entrance hall. He was a young man wearing the
royal-blue uniform of a Space Cadet. Tall and wiry, with square features
topped by a shock of close-cropped blond hair, he stood poised on the
balls of his feet, ready to move quickly should another watch officer
appear.

After a quick glance at his wrist chronometer, the young cadet darted
across the slidewalk toward the transparent crystal portal of the
dormitory. Hesitating only long enough to make certain that the inner
hallway was clear, he slid the portal open, ducked inside, and sprinted
down the hall toward a large black panel on the wall near the foot of
the slidestairs. On the panel, in five long columns, were the name
plates of every cadet quartered in the dormitory and beside each plate
were two words, IN and OUT, with a small tab that fitted over one of the
words.

Out of the one hundred and fifty cadets in the dormitory, one hundred
and forty-nine were marked IN. The slender, blond-haired cadet quickly
made it unanimous, reaching up to the tab next to the name of Roger
Manning and sliding it over to cover the word OUT. With a last final
look around, he raced up the slidestairs, smiling in secret triumph.

In Room 512 on the fifth floor of the dormitory, Tom Corbett and Astro,
the two other cadets w